Extra £500 living costs allowance on top of £750 weekly pay
US law firm Cleary has increased the salaries of its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers in London to £172,500, while also introducing a new £500 allowance for vacation schemers.
The pay boost marks a rise of almost 5%, or an additional £8,000, from the previous NQ rate of £164,500.
The Legal Cheek Firms Most List 2027 shows the increase puts Cleary ahead of the likes of Jones Day, Orrick and Weil (£170,000), and just behind Paul Hastings, Morgan Lewis and Fried Frank (£173,000).
The outfit has also upped trainee solicitor salaries to £62,500 in year one and £67,500 in year two.
Separately, Cleary has introduced a new £500 allowance for all vacation scheme participants to help cover living costs. This comes on top of the £750 weekly payment vac schemers already receive.
The firm, which takes on around 16 trainees each year, says the additional financial support is designed to make its vacation schemes more accessible to candidates from all backgrounds.
Applications for Cleary’s winter vacation scheme are now open, with applications for its spring and summer schemes also being accepted until 29 January 2027. You can check out deadlines for all the leading law firms on our Key Deadlines Calendar.
If you have no connection to London, how can you afford to stay for 2 weeks on £500?
I’d recommend the fine streets of Canary Wharf or Westminster on these fine Indian Summer evenings. IYKYK.
I appreciate firms providing maintenance grants to future trainees, and I am certainly grateful for mine. However, I do feel that many firms set these grants at a level that assumes their future trainees are still living at home with their parents, with little or no financial responsibility.
The courses we are required to undertake are full time, often with timetables and teaching hours that change at relatively short notice. This makes securing and maintaining part time employment particularly difficult, especially in the current economic climate.
When you factor in the cost of renting in London, where even a room in a shared property can easily cost £800 to £1,200 per month, alongside utilities, food, transport and other essential living expenses, these grants simply do not stretch very far.
Not every future trainee is a 21 year old graduate living with their parents. Some families or other financial commitments. Yet the financial support offered often seems to overlook these circumstances entirely.
I am not suggesting firms should fund every aspect of a trainee’s lifestyle, but there is a reasonable distinction between providing a maintenance grant and providing enough financial support to make the compulsory period of study sustainable.
If firms require future trainees to undertake full time study, often leaving them with little practical opportunity to earn an income, surely the maintenance grants should reflect the actual cost of living rather than an assumption that someone else will be covering it?
This comes on top of the £750 weekly payment vac schemers already receive
Tbf what other industry is going to pay rent for an intern for 2 weeks?
Hmmm, law firms have serviced apartments so there’s no rent
Under Westminster Bridge is a popular option.
I believe they have pitches going for around £40/night